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Thursday, December 11, 2008 - Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

Water on the floor by the door, Dec 11, 2008, Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS
Water on the floor by the door, Dec 11, 2008, Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

I have an idea how to deal with A Tale of Two Leaks

But I can't work on it until the roof dries out. Meanwhile the wood framing gets wetter and wetter - not a good thing.

I just checked the weather forecast

Today: Snow, mainly before 4pm. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 39. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Right! This is Mississippi, remember.

Night camp

Site 39 - Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville MS

Five Trillion Spiders

Spiders begin their hunting with a few handicaps. They're often smaller and weaker than their prey, and they have no wings to give chase in the air. Some species extend their legs by hydraulic pressure, using the same liquid that carries oxygen from their lungs, so they have a hard time running and breathing at the same time. Even their poison may be no match for their victim's: a crab spider's bite is to a honeybee's sting as "an air-gun compared with an elephant rifle," John Crompton wrote. Yet spiders kill at an astonishing pace. One Dutch researcher estimates that there are some five trillion spiders in the Netherlands alone, each of which consumes about a tenth of a gram of meat a day. Were their victims people instead of insects, they would need only three days to eat all sixteen and a half million Dutchmen.

From Spider Woman by Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker magazine, March 5, 2007, page 69

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